This invention relates to a decorative food, and more particularly to a decorative food which has a food stuff enclosed by food materials, and to a method and an apparatus for manufacturing the same.
There is proposed a chocolate which has a foodstuff, such as liquor, fruit, nuts, or the like enclosed therein. There is also known a chocolate, for instance, from JP-A-9-23818, which is formed of a plurality of kinds of chocolate materials and has striped pattern on its surface.
The first mentioned chocolate having the foodstuff enclosed therein is excellent in taste and flavor when the foodstuff and the chocolate are simultaneously taken into the mouth of a consumer. However, the chocolate itself is formed of a single material, and therefore its taste and decorated appearance on its surface are monotonous and unfancy. On the other hand, according to the latter mentioned prior art reference, the chocolate has the striped pattern formed in the direction to extrude two kinds of the chocolate materials. In this chocolate, however, one of the two chocolate materials forms an internal base, and the other one forms the striped pattern only on the surface of the base. Therefore, when it is taken into the mouth, flavor of mixture of the two kinds of chocolate is relished only at the beginning, but the constant taste or flavor of the mixture cannot be enjoyed to the end. In addition, the latter mentioned chocolate formed of one chocolate material as a base and the other chocolate material adhering to the base is not different from the conventional decorative food formed of a base material such as biscuit and chocolate adhering to the base. The only difference or improvement in this latter mentioned chocolate from the traditional decorative food is that the chocolate has the smooth surface due to casting of the chocolate materials into a mold. As a result, the latter mentioned chocolate is limited in formation of patterns as well as in designing. Above all, a chocolate formed by only two kinds of chocolate materials cannot cope with diversified demands of consumers in these days, and further there is something missing in this chocolate as a decorative chocolate having unique taste and flavor.
In the prior art cited above, the nozzle as a chocolate material charging device is constructed such that a fluid chocolate material is passed through a central cylinder from the upper portion to the lower portion thereof, and another fluid chocolate material is supplied into an inner cylinder and an outer cylinder surrounding the former, thereby forming a chocolate having a smooth striped pattern thereon. However, since the nozzle is in the form of a vertically-elongated cylinder, the nozzle has the disadvantage that the cleaning and clogging-prevention-operations for the inner and outer cylinders after the operation of the device become complicated, resulting in an increase in the maintenance cost. Further, in the case of the above-described nozzle, the relationship between one kind of chocolate material and the other kind is like main-subordinate relation, so that the formation of decorative pattern is limited.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a decorative food such as a decorative chocolate having original taste and flavor, which is formed not only of a plurality of kinds of fluid food materials but also of a different foodstuff enclosed inside.
It is another object of the invention to provide a decorative food which has a pattern formed therein that substantially conforms to a predetermined pattern, by extruding a plurality of kinds of fluid food materials while dispensing with a main-subordinate relationship between the food materials.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a decorative food in which first taste spread in the mouth and later taste tasted after the food progressively melts to expose the interior thereof are maintained to substantially the same taste by maintaining formulated ratios of the exterior and interior of the plurality of kinds of fluid food materials to be constant, and finally further different taste can be relished.
It is still further object of the invention to provide a decorative food which has a pattern such that pattern elements are arranged with substantially the same ratio in any cross sectional area, by making a mold of the apparatus taper down from an opening of the mold toward a lower portion of the same.
It is an even further object of the invention to provide a food which is original and rich in decorativeness, by forming gradation at boundary portions between the elements of the pattern.
To attain the above objects, according to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a decorative food formed of a plurality of kinds of fluid food materials and manufactured by using a mold, wherein the decorative food has an outside shape thereof conforming to an interior surface of the mold inclusive of an opening of the mold, wherein the decorative food has a colored pattern divided into multiple divisions extending up to a central portion of the decorative food, in a direction to extrude the fluid food materials into the mold, the colored pattern being formed such that the multiple divisions are arranged with substantially the same ratio when cut at any of a cross sectional area intersecting the direction to extrude the food materials, and wherein the decorative food has a food stuff enclosed therein.
In the pattern having the multiple divisions, one kind of fluid food material is divided into at least two divisions. The relationship between the divisions is as follows: If holes formed in the nozzle are equal in diameter to each other, the food pattern has its area divided into equal divisions. The amount of the fluid food material present in each division can be varied by controlling a discharge amount of the fluid food material from each hole, or by changing the diameter of the same.
The foodstuffs to be enclosed in the chocolate include liquor such as wine, liqueur, and fruit wine, viscous foods such as different chocolate from the base chocolate, jelly, bean, jam, and fruit jam inclusive of strawberry jam and marmalade, and beverages such as milk, coffee, and juice. Out of the above-mentioned items, one or a plurality of the items may be selected. Further, the pattern of the decorative food may be molded by means of an inverse conical mold or an inverse trapezoidal mold. The mold may progressively taper down from an opening thereof for receiving fluid food materials toward a lower portion thereof. Therefore, a plurality of the fluid food materials extruded into the mold form an umbrella shape which progressively tapers down from the opening of the mold toward the lower portion to concentrate on one point on the bottom. Further, a plurality of kinds of the fluid food materials separately extruded from the nozzle are gradated at boundaries between the respective fluid food materials, i.e. edges of the respective divisions of the pattern, by means of a gradation plate, and therefore a decorative food with a totally refined pattern can be obtained.
In another aspect of the invention, an object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for manufacturing a decorative food, which is designed such that a nozzle of a charging device of the apparatus is made extremely compact in shape and thin in thickness compared with a conventional nozzle, and at the same time a variety of decorative patterns can be formed within the compact and thin nozzle, and also to provide a method by using the same.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for manufacturing a decorative food, in which the nozzle has a plurality of passages formed therein, and the fluid food materials are charged into the passages and then discharged therefrom on a material-by-material basis, followed by integrally molding the fluid food materials. As a result, the decorative food can be formed into a pattern set beforehand.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an apparatus for manufacturing a decorative food, in which the nozzle includes one or more nozzle pieces arranged on each other and functions to progressively branches each of the fluid food materials to multiple divisions, to thereby form the decorative food with a complicated pattern designed based on the arrangement of outlets of the nozzle.
To attain the above objects, according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for manufacturing a decorative food, including a charging device for charging a plurality of kinds of fluid food materials into a mold, a hardening device for hardening the charged fluid food materials to obtain the decorative food, and a demolding device for taking off the hardened decorative food out of the mold, the charging device comprising a container section for accommodating each of the plurality of kinds of the fluid food materials on a material-by-material basis, and a nozzle section for feeding the plurality of kinds of the fluid food materials from the container section at a predetermined amount, the nozzle section including a nozzle mounting plate and a nozzle piece, the nozzle mounting plate having first passages formed therein for delivering the fluid food materials fed from the container section on a material-by-material basis, and upper holes formed in the first passages for feeding the fluid food materials to the nozzle piece placed below the plate on the material-by-material basis, the nozzle piece having second passages formed therein for moving and spreading the fluid food materials fed from the upper holes in a horizontal direction on the material-by-material basis, and lower holes formed in the second passages, on the material-by-material basis, the lower holes being larger in number than the upper holes, whereby the fluid food materials are separately extruded into the mold placed below the nozzle piece, the nozzle mounting plate and the nozzle piece each having a food guide hole penetrating in a vertical direction for feeding a foodstuff so that the foodstuff is enclosed by the fluid food materials.
To enclose the above foodstuff by a plurality of the fluid food materials, in addition to the upper holes and the lower holes for extruding the fluid food materials, food guide holes may be formed, for instance, at a central portion of the nozzle mounting plate and the nozzle piece which form a nozzle section, so as to be placed in a line. The foodstuff can be enclosed by the fluid food materials through the thus formed food guide holes. Alternatively, one of the upper holes formed in the nozzle mounting plate, for extruding the fluid food material may be used as the food guide hole, and a lower hole which is formed in the nozzle piece at a location vertically just below the upper hole and different from the lower holes for extruding the fluid food materials into the mold may be used as the food guide hole. As a result, the foodstuff can be charged into the fluid food materials through these upper and lower holes, and enclosed by the same.
To attain the above described objects, according to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for manufacturing a decorative food, including the steps of charging a plurality of kinds of fluid food materials into a mold, hardening the charged fluid food materials to obtain the decorative food, and taking off the hardened decorative food out of the mold, the charging step comprising the steps of extruding the plurality of kinds of the fluid food material in a multiple-string shape on a material-by-material basis, and discharging a foodstuff into the fluid food materials in the middle of the step of extruding the fluid food materials, the step of extruding the fluid food materials including the steps of branching one of the fluid food materials in a horizontal direction to subdivide the same, branching another one of the fluid food materials in a horizontal direction to subdivide the same, and extruding the one of the subdivided fluid food materials and the another one of the subdivided fluid food materials in the alternate-multiple-string shape into the mold, to thereby form decoration with a diversified pattern.
Each hole of the nozzle for extruding the fluid food materials in the multiple-string shape is kept from contact with the nozzle hole adjacent thereto, i.e. the holes are spaced from each other, and therefore the strings are out of contact with each other during discharging. The strings of the materials are then dropped into a hopper placed between the nozzle section and the mold, or directly into the mold. Accordingly, the fluid food materials in the string shape extruded from the holes of the nozzle are brought into contact with each other and integrated, followed by hardening of the same in the mold to form the decorative pattern. To enclose the foodstuff by the fluid food materials, a control section is operated to control the charging device. First, the string-shaped fluid food materials are discharged into the mold, and the foodstuff is discharged to the central portion of the fluid food materials in the middle of discharging. Continuation of the step of extruding the string-shaped materials can finish manufacturing of the decorative food.